No. 571] 



PAT TEEN DEVELOPMENT 



399 



riorly it does not meet the shoulder patch. The left-hand 

 neck patch, however, is quite separate from the neighbor- 

 ing patches and is reduced to, a small area at the junction 

 of the neck with the shoulder. It is absent in Fig. 17 from 

 the left side and is represented on the right side by a 

 similar small center, placed far back. In Fig. 20 the 

 neck patch or patches show a reduction to a single small 

 square median patch at the base of the neck, but whether 

 this represents a median fusion of the two lateral centers, 

 or whether one only has persisted and has shifted to the 

 midline, I do not attempt to say, though the former 

 hypothesis seems on the whole more probable. 



The shoulder patch in house cats is relatively small, 

 and, as indicated by the indentations in Figs. 17, 18, is of 

 the fore side of the upper arm, but the shoulder patch 

 when fully developed seems to cover the rest of the leg 

 and a small scapular area. It is shown much reduced in 

 Fig. 19, on the right-hand side, and is altogether wanting 

 in Fig 20. The conjoined shoulder and side patches in 

 Fig. 18 are shown reduced laterally, so as to form a 

 broad median stripe which I take to mean that the ulti- 

 mate centers are closely approximated dorsally. The 

 neck patch is wholly absent, but both ear patches are 

 present and joined medially. The sacral patches, as 

 commonly, seem fused or at least very close together. 

 There is a small break midway on the tail, which sepa- 

 rates off a pigmented tip, a phenomenon which I shall 

 refer to under "centrifugal pigmentation.' ' The side 

 patch is long comparatively, and extends forward to 

 cover the deficiencies of the shoulder patch, as in Fig. 17. 

 Here the left side patch has been reduced at its anterior 

 end, and its separateness from the patch of the right side 

 is indicated by the median indentations. It is often want- 

 ing in domesticated cats. 



The sacral patches, pigmenting the buttocks and tail, 

 seem to be fused or closely approximated at the root of 

 the tail, as in dogs. I have seen no instance of the crown 

 patch being shown in the cat, though such may occur. 



